Chioma Ajunwa-Opara, MON, OLY – also known as Chioma Ajunwa – is a Nigerian former track and field athlete and football player, notable for being the first Nigerian to win Olympic gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal in a field event. A member of the Nigerian Police Force, Ajunwa remains the only woman to compete at both the FIFA Women's World Cup as a footballer and the Olympics as a track and field athlete.
Maryam Yusuf Jamal is an Ethiopian-born Bahraini middle-distance runner. She is the first Bahraini athlete to win an Olympic medal, a gold in the 1,500m women's race, in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. This was also the first Olympic medal won by a woman representing a Gulf state. Born in Ethiopia, 2005 was her first full season. She gained the national record and ran the fastest 3000 m of the year, with a time of 8:28.87 at a race in Oslo. Jamal is a two-time world champion in the 1,500 m, having won at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships in Athletics.
Yuliya Nikolaevna Chizhenko-Fomenko is a Russian middle-distance runner who specializes in the 1500 metres.
Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju is a retired Nigerian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres during her career. She won 400 metres race in the 1991 All-Africa Games and was second in the 200 metres race. She is married to Adewale Olukoju.
Blessing Oghnewresem Okagbare-Otegheri is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who specialized in long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medallist in the long jump and a world medalist in the 200 metres. Okagbare also holds the women's 100 metres Commonwealth Games record at 10.85 seconds. She is currently serving a 10-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules. Her ban expires on 30 July 2032.
Anyika Onuora is a British retired sprint track and field athlete who competed in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres, and also the 4×100 metres relay and 4x400 metres relay.
Tiffany Adaeze Porter is a track and field athlete with joint British and American nationality who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles. She represented the United States as a junior, but began representing Great Britain in 2010 on joining the senior ranks after moving to England and competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The women's 1500 metres competition was an event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The competition was held at the Olympic Stadium from 6–10 August. The top two finishers were later found to have used prohibited drugs during this period, and subsequently disqualified. The current silver medalist, Tatyana Tomashova, had served a two-year doping ban (2008–2010) for manipulating samples and was banned after the Olympics for failing another drug test; and the 7th-place finisher Natallia Kareiva and the 9th-place finisher Yekaterina Kostetskaya were later disqualified after being found guilty of doping.
Bahrain competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This nation marked its eighth appearance in the Summer Olympics, but there were concerns about the nation's participation to the games due to its recent political uprising.
Oluwakemi "Kemi" Adekoya is a Nigerian-born track and field athlete who competes for Bahrain. She specialises in the 400 metres hurdles and has a personal best of 53.39 seconds – a Bahraini and Asian record. In January 2019, it was reported that Adekoya tested positive for an illegal steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition test in November 2018 and was provisionally suspended. All of her results achieved after 24 August 2018 were also stripped.
Ese Brume MON is a Nigerian athlete who specializes in the long jump. She is the current commonwealth champion and a three-time African senior champion in the long Jump and holds a personal best of 7.17 m She currently holds the commonwealth games record, African junior record and African record in the event. She's a two-time medalist at the world athletics championship, an Olympic bronze medalist and also a five-time African junior champion in athletics.
Aminat Oluwafunmilayo Adeniyi is a Nigerian freestyle wrestler. She competed in the women's freestyle 58 kg event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where she won a gold medal.
Ayomide Temilade Oluwatoyosi Folorunso is an Italian athlete specialising in the 400 metres hurdles. She competed in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
Oluwatobiloba Ayomide "Tobi" Amusan is a Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter. Amusan is the current world record holder in the 100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.12 seconds which she set at the 2022 women's 100 metres hurdles semi final in Eugene Oregon. She is the current Commonwealth and African champion in the 100 m hurdles, as well as the meet record holder in those two competitions. Amusan became the first ever Nigerian world champion and world record holder in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Championships 100 m hurdles gold medal, setting the current world record of 12.12 seconds (+0.9 m/s) in the semi-final, followed up by a 12.06 seconds (+2.5 m/s) in the final. She won back-to-back Commonwealth and African titles in 2018 and 2022 in the 100 m hurdles and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event. She is also the current Diamond league champion in the 100 metres hurdles having won the final in 12.33 seconds (+1.8 m/s) achieving a winning streak in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Salwa Eid Naser is a Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She was the 2019 World champion with the third fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the event and also the first woman representing an Asian nation to win that event at a World Championships. The mark places her only behind contested results of Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvílová. Over the distance, at only 19, Naser was the 2017 World silver medallist. She has also won, as a member of the Bahraini mixed-gender 4x400 m relay team, the 2019 World Championships bronze medal.
Iman Essa Jasim is a Bahraini sprinter. She competed in the women's 100 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was born Endurance Essien Udoh in Nigeria on 9 July 1997.
Lauritta Onye is a Paralympian athlete who competes in F40 classification throwing events. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro winning gold in the F40 shot put. Onye is also an actress, performing under the name Laury White.
Olaitan Yusuf is a Nigerian international footballer who plays as a forward for the Nigeria women's national football team. She was part of the team at the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup and has been a two-time Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year.
Annette Echikunwoke is a Nigerian-American hammer thrower who lives in Ohio, United States. She was due to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Summer Olympics, but was disqualified due to the negligence of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria; she changed allegiance and is set to represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She holds the African area record in hammer throw, with a throw of 75.49 m in Tucson in 2021.
Aminat is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
